His fleecyness February 8, 2010

Lincraft are having a half price fabric sale. Normally, I don’t bother with their fabrics. I think they are very ordinary and overpriced. However, at half price, you have to find something to interest. I found polar fleece today and at $5m (150cm width) you just can’t go wrong. Using some of my boy’s existing clothes I traced out a pattern and then put this together this evening. I have left the bottom hem so that I can make sure it is long enough for him when the time comes to wear it.

All together, it used about $1 worth of the fabric and a zip that I picked up in a pack of 10 from the Red Cross. I think the pack cost me $1. Not that it is the money that matters. I like this little vest and as we can only hope that there is cooler weather coming, it is about the right time to be getting a few little things like this in the closet. Brisbane weather being what it is, these little things are perfect for even the middle of winter. A long sleeved T-shirt and a vest is all he needs.

It might be a while before I can get him to model it. Forecast is hot again tomorrow.

I will do a few things differently next time – make the neck and arm seams a bit more generous and perhaps add a collar. More to come – the sale doesn’t end until Sunday.

ETA photo – it fits perfectly!

My Noosa Sunset Shawl February 8, 2010

When I saw Donna’s Noosa Sunset Shawl I knew that I had to have one.  A simple design with just enough interest in the yarn to make it really wearable.  She told me she wore it over a white T shirt to the movies and I thought ‘just perfect’.  I didn’t have any gorgeous yarn in my stash that was going to work so I decided (inspired by Kelebek- scroll down to the end) to overdye some dodgy Moda Vera sock yarn.  So here is the yarn dyed first in Rasberry Ice Kool Aid (also thanks to Donna) and then overdyed again with an eggplanty purple.

I was really pleased with the yarn and also with the finished shawl.  I wasn’t so pleased when I found (when weaving in the ends) that I had dropped a stitch and then not picked it up properly so had a hole but I sort of just fudged a little repair job and so you can’t see it now.  I think I am over shawlettes for the time being and it is great that the next little KAL with Donna will be a vest.  Just in time for the cooler weather.

I’ll try for better pics soon – this really doesn’t do it justice.

Finally caught up January 30, 2010

… on my Around the Block, blocks.

After being really behind, I completed Sheridan’s blocks today and although not in front, I am at least up with the rest of them and ready for Donna’s February blocks.  I loved the fabrics that Sheridan sent and that she sent plenty to work with.  I was also able to be a bit more ‘freehand’ with these than many of the past blocks and I really enjoyed that.

I started with this simple strip combination because she had one in her gallery and nobody had done one yet.

Then I liked it so much, I made another smaller one and added a border.

A really hard block January 29, 2010

Lynn from the Around the Block group set a challenge that I found very hard.  Zig zag blocks.  I have struggled over this block for nearly 2 months and to any experienced quilter the block is probably pretty ordinary and has its obvious faults but now, at the end, I am very pleased with the result and very pleased with the journey it has taken me on.

By making this block I have learned so much about block construction and sizing, working with fabric on the bias and with a variety of fabrics.  The main lesson I learned was to think ‘outside the square’ and not to give up to any sort of ‘that will do’ approach.  Sure, I struggled and at times got very frustrated when I couldn’t make it come together but after I cleared my head and allowed that little light bulb to come on…. I felt the true creative process cool me like a sparkling mineral water on a hot day.

Thanks to Lynn for setting the challenge and for being so patient for this very overdue block.  Sorry there isn’t two but I wouldn’t really want to push my luck.

I Knit January 28, 2010

… and therefore I am?
Today, I attended a planning day for my Division, within the Queensland Government. I only work part time, and only part of my part time is in the office (the rest is work-at-home thanks to our very family friendly policies). I really enjoyed the day because, being part time, I rarely get the chance to see the bigger picture of the work we are doing and when the big picture used to be my whole life, that can be challenging.
Anyway, the day was run by an organisational psychologist and to start with he asked us all to introduce ourselves, say what we did within the organisation and reveal something that others would not know about us.
This is a talented, dedicated, senior group of people. These are people who consider themselves real public servants… people whose job it is to ’serve the public’. This is a team. As you can expect, the men chose to reveal that they (for example) had represented Australia playing Rugby in one case and Cricket in another, had been a Grade One Basketball coach or had run large not-for-profit organisations in their ’spare’ time. The women were less predictable.. one liked to fish with her Dad, one was a twin and another started her career on a sheep station in the most remote part of Western Queensland.
I thought really hard. Would I reveal past glory days as a pretty handy competitive runner, my past passion and knowledge of Moto Guzzi motorbikes or my less than orthodox wedding in Las Vegas?
No, I thought, I’m going to live in the ‘here and now’ and reveal something of who I am today… so boldly I said…. “I knit… I am passionately obsessive about knitting… barking mad for it.”
You’d have thought that a polite nod and silence would have followed. Next.

I was more than taken by surprise when the psychologist then started to explain that recent studies have shown that ‘knitters’ are the most consumate multi-taskers that a recent study could identify. Apparently, no other ‘group’ could do an activity, watch television and have a conversation all at the same time. They also have lower stress levels and are more highly dexterous than the general population (no surprise there!).
The rest of my day has been spent in coffee breaks and lunch times either (1) explaining what I knit (2) hearing stories about other peoples experience of knitting (or in one case, her husband’s) (3) asking questions about knitted items or (4) hearing nostaligic memories of Gran, Great Aunt Hilda and of course, Mums knitted jumpers.

No body asked the Rugby player about the game against Argentina at Ballymore.

Just goes to show…..

Saroyan January 18, 2010

Saroyan is finished and I love it.

thanks craftjunk for a great KAL

Some new yarn January 18, 2010

My lovely sister took me shopping for a belated Christmas present yesterday – yarn of course! Here it is.

This weeks achievements January 17, 2010

This has been a busy week for me, with really not enough time at home to achieve what I really wanted to get done.  I am a bit behind in my ‘Around the Block‘  blocks and really need to get them done but most of my crafting was done away from home this week.

I was able to finish my second pair of French Press Slippers (Rav Link).  They are not as good as the first so these will actually become my pair.  The other pair just might be gifted as I have no idea why on earth I would want 2 pairs. These were made with Moda Vera Mousse (a wool, bamboo blend) and they felted very nicely in my Mums top loader.  The yarn was a bit chunkier than the Cascade 220 and the results follow.

More importantly, I have been preparing for my next couple of projects by dyeing some yarn.  I overdyed some Moda Vera Socks for a Noosa Shawl (eggplant and light electric blue) and overdyed some Bella Baby Sugar in Lavender for my Daybreak (red, purple, blue) last night. The bright red / purple / blue will be paired with a navy blue solid yarn.   I am very pleased with the Noosa Shawl effort (although there is more light blue than in the photo) and will reserve judgement on the Daybreak combo until after I have knitted a bit.   For the Noosa Shawl, I used the KoolAid Donna gave me last year for Christmas (the light blue Rasberry) and then overdyed in a light eggplanty purple. I think it will look nice – because it was going over that variagated brown sock yarn, there is quite a lot of different shades. Pleased that more stash yarn is being used.

It feels good to use stash yarn and be happy doing it.

I am four repeats off finishing my Saroyan… feeling that excitement you get when a project is nearly done but you are loving it so much, you don’t want to finish.  It will be lovely to post a picture soon.  I am already thinking about how I would make this project again.

Creative Boot Camp January 11, 2010

The last few weeks have been truly lazy.  I think that this time of year calls for that and it is part of the natural cycle of life.  The house is cleaned only when it really needs it, dinners are less planned and a bit more relaxed, ironing?… can’t remember what ironing is…and a few more movies are watched.  Projects have been started and finished but in no particular order and whilst I have enjoyed this time, it doesn’t and shouldn’t last.

Now that I have shaken myself out of the slothful, lazy, holiday days I am feeling in need of some organising, planning, completing and clearing around. Hence, as of yesterday (and for no particular time) I am now in Creative Boot Camp.  Like the popular fitness program of the same name, this time will be a concentrated, disciplined, military style regime of activity, dieting, ridding myself of excess and an organised skills development and toning exercise.  It started yesterday with a good clean out of my creative space.  I ditched a few projects that were never going to happen, cleaned out my WIP drawers and made lists of what was going to be completed.  I returned notions to their correct place, tidied up patterns and half used balls of yarn, scraps of fabric and reorganised the cork board that is above my sewing machine.  It felt good! 

Today, I am setting goals and organising a realistic work program.  Like any good workout regime, I am starting within my limits, setting goals which are achieveable and within my skills range.  Next I will stretch myself to those projects that I have planned, but will require new skills and levels of mental fitness.  All the time, I will be dieting until I have made real progress and can feel a bit of movement around my creative waistline to indulge in one or two delicious morsels of fabric and yarn.  I will have ‘Sarge’, my alter ego, yelling in my ear about toughness, intestinal fortitude and discipline to remind me of my goals and I will be strict with myself until those goals have been reached. 

I wonder if I need to wear camo and put some black on my face?  Lets see how I go.

Happy New Year January 10, 2010

There are a few resolutions this year and one of them is to blog when I have a newly completed project.  Not wait until I have a pile of them but just blog when it is done.

Resolutions? Sure, why not…. I like resolutions.  What is a new year without some reflection on what is important and what positive steps you can take to get or keep life in balance.  I also find that after the rush of preparing for Christmas, the family and fun times the event actually involves and having a bit of a holiday it is the perfect time to take a deep breath and be honest about what you like and what you don’t in life.  Time to be clear about what you want to change and what you don’t or can’t.

So onto my latest FO – the French Press Slippers (Rav link) – a fabulous little project, perfect for presents and pretty cool looking too.  This project was made much more fun by 1. purchasing the yarn with Donna (craftjunk), 2.chatting about how huge they were before felting and 3. using her top loader to felt them.  It was a great little KAL and I’m pleased we have a few more planned.

These slippers are just lovely and as I already have another pair on the needles (with a different yarn), I think there are many more to come.  Last year I made lounge pants for all the family for birthday presents.  I think this year it will be slippers to match.